Summerbird, Chocolate Milk 49%

It has been too long wattwurmnashi has blogged about bean to bar chocolates so that needs major rectification ASAP!

Summerbird are a brand from Denmark which boasts a fledgling high quality bean to bar chocolate maker scene. They have been around for a while, offering an extensive repertoire these days. Summerbird, complete brand name Summerbird Organic focus on organic ingredients & sustainability & are actively involved in supporting Red Cross projects in Madagascar for which they are selling almonds coated in Madagascar cacao bean sourced chocolate, nobly donating the whole end price to that Red Cross project.

There is some uncertainty over just how bean to bar Summerbird are because in their company profile it says that they make their cru chocolates in collaboration with well-known industrial chocolate maker Valrhona which rings of outsourcing the production process while in their chocolate bar section they state that they make their chocolates from ‘start to finish’.

Actually, wattwurmnashi wanted to start off with a bang according to preference for a b2b chocolate comeback but the brand name of today’s chocolate, Summerbird changed my mind, it being summer & all. Nevertheless, the ingredient list of this milk chocolate doesn’t read too bad:

Vanilla but no essence or aroma – remains to be seen to what extent that is being used? Of further positive note are the very detailed specifications including cocoa beans – Criollo as well as Trinitario – & conch time &, of course, the country of origin where the beans were sourced from – in this case Perú, a wattwurmnashi favorite.

mouthStarts very muted like it isn’t going to develop. Muted fruitiness but quite faint & undeveloped. Personally, I couldn’t pinpoint whether it is the banana stated in the flavor profile or something else. The chocolate then opens up more, vanilla & rich caramel notes set in, not as sweet & light as the smell. They stay almost throughout before the chocolate becomes more milky towards the end. Vanilla remains underlying but is not as obnoxious as it could be like e. g. Oriol Balaguer’s milk chocolate, review to be uploaded soon. The melt is quick & accessible. During the aftertaste the caramel flavor builds up more & more until it becomes surprisingly dark but it tastes more diffuse & not as distilled as Åkesson’s coconut sugar fleur de sel milk chocolate – review also to be coming soon, it also has considerable length & then ebbs away gradually.

A pretty good, pretty well balanced & not too sweet milk chocolate, although wattwurmnashi would warn fellow Peru lovers that this chocolate does not exactly embody what Peru sourced beans are usually associated with. Still, it’s all laid out in the given taste profile so you’re not buying a pig in a poke.

Speaking of which, this bar was bought at Stancsics Schokoladen in Munich but wattwurmnashi does not know where else it might be available.

Find more info on the Summerbird Organic websiteDanish only I’m afraid, & no, there will not be a Danish wattwurmnashi as I can only read it well enough to understand but definitely not produce it.

Thanks Sarah! Yes, I agree about milk chocolate. While not a bad chocolate I’m not sure this is among the more interesting in its ball park though. Personally, I’ve liked the above mentioned Åkesson’s fleur de sel + coconut sugar the best so far but I also like Cacao Hunter’s 52% because it really manages to show some flavor nuances that other milk chocolates commonly fail at.
Good luck!